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The prime goal of very high precision astrometry is: ‣ to detect and fully characterize planetary systems ‣ with all components down to one Earth mass ‣ orbiting bright solar-type stars (FGK,V ≤ 9) ‣ in the solar neighborhood (d < 20 pc) with planetary architectures :  similar to that of our Solar System  or any one with Earth mass planets Primary scientific objectives of very high precision astrometry ➥ Key capability: detecting Earth-mass planets in the Habitable Zones of Sun-like stars

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Simulations of astrometric data

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Astrometric signal of the Sun located at 10pc  Astrometry works well even with stars 5x more active than the Sun

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Stellar activity of nearby FGK stars

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NEAT: a very high precision astrometry mission submitted to ESA Cosmic Mission call for M3 in December 2010 by 70 scientists (full list at )

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COSMIC Vision Plan :Theme 1, Section 1.2 ‘‘ On a longer timescale, a complete census of all Earth-sized planets within 100 pc of the Sun would be highly desirable. Building on Gaia’s expected contribution on larger planets, this could be achieved with a high-precision terrestrial planet astrometric surveyor. ’’ We have designed NEAT to be this astrometric surveyor. Conclusion and current status ➠ Science ranked highly by ESA Astronomy Working Group Gaia synergies  NEAT will observe our closest neighbors inaccessible to Gaia  NEAT’s pointed astrometry can investigate interesting cases from Gaia  NEAT will focus on low-mass planets in the Habitable Zone of FGK stars  NEAT can also investigate all nearby A stars and some M stars What next?  Lab demonstration under progress to demonstrate 5 μpixel centroiding  Trade-off between Formation Flying vs deployable boom  Science simulations: double blind test  Extension of science cases: young stars, A stars, M dwarfs, NEO,... All information at